Dresden - Baroque, Revived and Restored
 

We visited Dresden on a day-trip from Leipzig.

We explored the Altstadt with its amazing hyper-Baroque Zwinger, a grand plaza enclosed on four sides by colonnaded, domed and statue studded buildings, one crowned with a giant Polish crown, another with a glockenspiel, another with a stature of Augustus as Atlas, holding up the world.

Nearby was the elegant Semperoper concert hall, and beyond, the Residenzschloss, city home of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony.

All of this Baroque display contrasted sharply with the functional modernity (1960s) of the Kulturpalast, home of the Dresden Philharmonie, reminding us of the days of the DDR.

The piece de resistance was the stunning Frauenkirche, the elegant domed church standing gloriously in the Neumarkt, surrounded by recreated Renaissance style townhouses. The church was destroyed in the firebombing of Dresden that occurred at the end of World War II. It's ruins stood as a memorial until 1990, when reconstruction restored its former glory began.

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